Multiple high profile resignations at BOI

• Entire director board reported to have stepped down with immediate effect
• BOI Director General also reported to have tendered resignation 

The entire director board of Sri Lanka’s apex investment promotions agency, Board of Investment, and its Director General are reported to have stepped down from their positions with immediate effect, Mirror Business learns.
The BOI board was headed by Chairman Sanjaya Mohottala and the other board members were Dr. Sanjaya Kulatunga, Dr. Harsha Subasinghe and Jayamin Pelpola.

Following the board’s resignation, Director General Pasan Wanigasekara is also reported to have tendered his resignation. 

A vague statement issued by the BOI confirmed the resignation of “prominent members” of its board, but fell short of giving out the names.

According to highly placed sources, the immediate reason for the multiple resignations was a decision taken at the highest levels of the government to revoke a Cabinet paper, which facilitated the appointment of 29 new officers to the BOI at higher salaries. 

The BOI board had backed these appointments on the basis that new talent was required for selected positions to attract and create new investment portfolios. 

However, the BOI trade unions were against the move. 

“Unfortunately, the efforts of the leadership to achieve this urgently required transformation, was strongly and continuously resisted by isolated factions both within and outside the organisation, who have put their self-interest over the public,” the statement issued by the BOI said yesterday. 

The matter also came up during a recent meeting of the Committee on Public Enterprises, where the COPE Chairman had inquired about seven officials recruited bypassing general procedures at higher salaries and had advised that such actions would lead to internal conflicts within the organisation.